Roosevelt Island, NYC
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by Richard and Melissa TerrisLooking for a short break, we recently packed up the car and drove to Virginia for a long weekend.
The first day was gloomy and cloudy, which wasn't a problem because we would be in the car for 4.5 hours. The first hour of this would be getting out of NYC! For me, the drive was a lot of fun because we passed through a number of places that I have never been to before.
After we left New York, we headed south down through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. This part of the trip was fine, but driving through Maryland was nice; a lot of nice countryside scenery.
We passed through Baltimore, which is a city I have yet to visit, but it's definitely on my to-do list! After this we had a lot more nice scenery before getting to Washington, D.C. We have visited there before and you can read about that trip here. We continued on to Virginia, to our first destination: Alexandria.
It was late by the time we checked into our hotel, a great place that Melissa found which is individual apartments in a nice complex. Check out their website here. We ordered some Chinese take-out and settled in for the night.
Next morning we got up early and headed out to breakfast before making our way to George Washington's Mount Vernon. This is the former home of the first president of the United States, and is a beautiful grounds. We walked around the grounds, visiting the impressive gardens, and various out-house buildings. The mansion itself is impressive, with it's bowling green lawn out front. At the back of the mansion you can sit on benches and look out to the Potomac River, which is just amazing! We next walked down the hill and looked at the tombs of George and his wife. The estate is stunning and well worth visiting if you haven't before. We may even visit again in future!
After leaving here, we made quick stop to Arlington Cemetery. I've seen the Cemetery on TV, and in pictures, but seeing it in person took my breath away! In every direction, as far as the eye could see, it was rows upon rows of headstones. You'll know from our recent D.C post, that WWII holds a great deal of meaning to me, but I have a lot of respect for veterans in general, of any war. Seeing the headstones of all these fallen heroes, not to mention the tomb of John F Kennedy, was absolutely humbling!
Next up was a 3 hour drive south to Virginia Beach!
We arrived in Virginia Beach very late, at around 11pm, so we went straight to bed. The next morning we got up early and went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast we took a stroll on the beach, which was a stone's throw from the hotel. The beach was beautiful! Golden sand and clear blue water; we could have stayed there all day!
Since we had a 7 hour drive back to New York we couldn't stay too long in Virginia Beach but we can HIGHLY recommend you visit, because it is an incredible place! One of the highlights is the 19 mile long bridge taking you in and out of Virginia Beach; it's a combination of bridges and tunnels, and you can actually pull over and look out at that beautiful blue water!
We had a great weekend and only wished it was longer - we're planning on visiting again later in the year so that we can visit some places that we didn't have time for, so stay tuned!
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